The Magnitude 9 Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, followed
by a massive tsunami struck TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station and triggered an unprecedented core melt/severe accident in
Units 1 - 3. The radioactivity release led to the evacuation of local
residents, many of whom still have not been able to return to their
homes.
As a group of nuclear experts, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan
established the Investigation Committee on the Nuclear Accident at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, to investigate and analyze the
accident from scientific and technical perspectives for clarifying the
underlying and fundamental causes, and to make recommendations. The
results of the investigation by the AESJ Investigation Committee has
been compiled herewith as the Final Report.
Direct contributing factors of the catastrophic nuclear incident at
Fukushima Daiichi NPP initiated by an unprecedented massive earthquake/
tsunami - inadequacies in tsunami measures, severe accident management,
emergency response, accident recovery and mitigations - and the
underlying factors - organizational issues, etc., have been clarified
and recommendations in the following areas have been made.
- Nuclear safety fundamentals
- Direct factors of the accident
- Organizational aspects
- Common items (R&D, International cooperation, human resources
management)
- Post-accident management/recovery from the accident.
